DOWD TELLS A STORY SHE LIKES ABOUT SCOTT BROWN

Scott Brown has set up an exploratory committee in preparation for a Senate campaign in New Hampshire. Maureen Dowd would like you to believe that Brown's arm really had to be twisted by the GOP, and that he never would have considered a run if it weren't for President Obama's less-than-spectacular approval ratings and the administration's problems with the health care rollout:

This is what's really freaking out Democrats: They know that Brown, after making some real money working for Fox News since his loss to Elizabeth Warren two years ago, wouldn't even be getting into the race if the political environment weren't so toxic for Democrats.

Republicans have been white-hot for Brown to get in, and he finally pulled the trigger Friday, establishing an exploratory committee and asserting that "the Obamacare Democrats are on the wrong side" of a big political wave.

In fact, Brown's been laying the groundwork for this run for about a year. Here's a Politico article from last April:

Since losing his Senate seat in November, the Republican flirted with but then decided against running again in Massachusetts, signed up as a commentator for Fox News and landed a gig at a law firm with a lobbying practice. Now he's again looking at a possible run ... in New Hampshire.

Brown is serious enough that he's making at least five trips to the state in a one-month window, including last Saturday for a speech to a county GOP luncheon in Hanover and an appearance at the New Hampshire Young Republicans convention.

... Republicans who have spoken with Brown say he's eager to see what kind of reception he gets from activists.

"Nothing is off the table, and nothing is on the table," Brown said coyly on Fox recently...

Every story I've read from 2013 suggests that, yes, national party leaders were strenuously urging Brown to run, but Brown was doing everything you'd do if you were planning to run. Here's The Boston Globe in November:

The signs are mounting. Scott Brown travels almost weekly to New Hampshire. Last month he formed a political action committee there to raise funds; this week he attacked the state's Democratic senator on his favorite target: national health care.

Now national Republicans are pushing the former Massachusetts senator to declare his candidacy for the US Senate from New Hampshire. And they insist, despite mixed signals from Brown, that he is seriously weighing such a run.

Oh, and in December, Brown sold his house in Massachusetts and moved to New Hampshire, where he already had a vacation home. Does that suggest to you that he was a reluctant warrior until this month, when he looked at the playing field after Alex Sink's defeat in Florida and told all those Republicans who were tugging at his sleeve, "Yeah, OK, you win -- I'm in"? That's what it suggests to Maureen Dowd.

Sorry, Maureen -- you'd like to persuade us that Brown spent half his free time on the rubber-chicken circuit in a neighboring state for a year, and even sold his house, just because he wanted to be a tease. That makes no sense.